Driehaus Museum's largest contemporary art show opens in Chicago—Here's what to expect

The Driehaus Museum is hosting its largest contemporary art exhibition, "A Tale of Today: Materialities."

The big picture: The museum's works use natural materials like glass, wood, and paper to reflect the history of each gallery—once home to Chicago's high society.

Flashback: The Driehaus Museum sits on the site of the Nickerson Mansion, built during the mid-19th century for one of Chicago's wealthiest families.

• Philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus acquired the building in 2003 to house art from his collection and open it to the public.

What to expect: Fourteen artists and collectives from the Midwest are featured. A few include:

• Artist Olivia Block plays off the taxidermy theme that was once present in the space by projecting bison, elk, deer and other hunted animals on the wallpapered walls.
• A large, tiled, handmade speaker crafted by artist Jefferson Pinder anchors the Smoking Room, where men from the city's high society once gathered to smoke and converse. This speaker is constructed with tiles from Bridgeport and plays the voice of the first Black man to be recorded, serving as a nod to the people and places distanced from the mansion that was once accessible only to the wealthy.
• Artist Laleh Motlagh made her version of a Persian rug using leaves collected from her childhood home in Iran and foliage found around the Driehaus museum.

What they're saying: "We become fascinated by the beautiful and intricate designs and carvings, and forget that before we shape these materials, they already came to us with histories, with embedded concepts, with genealogies, with encounters with natural elements and other forces like animals that shaped their stories," curator Giovanni Aloi said.

If you go: "A Tale of Today: Materialities" runs through April 27 at the Driehaus Museum in the Near North neighborhood.